Re: MtMan-List: howdy

["Barry Conner" <buck.conner@worldnet.att.net>]

Bill,

Your purchase of a Second Model Brown Bess , would fit early fur trade,
Charles E. Hanson, Jr. and several of us have talked about the use of
military musket and how far west did they go. According to Charley, he felt
that there were more of these type weapons that one would realize, his
reasoning was many received their musket as part payment when their time was
up, or just left and took it with them. Plus they had eaten and slept with
it for a long period of time and handling, maintance and use was second
hand. Not everyone could afford a fancy gun, with all the other equipage
needed.

What's funny about this, is when we first started talking about muskets in
the fur trade, Charles was finishing his book on the Hawken rifle; "The
Hawken Rifle: Its Place In History", around 1977 or 1978.

At that time most were pushing the Hawken as being the only correct gun for
the mountain man; Baird with Buckskin Report, Richey with Backwoodsman and
several others. Tradeguns were for breeds or Native American, or French; boy
has that one turned around as more research became available, thanks to Mr.
Hanson, etc.

On the AMM page take a look at my personal page on tradeguns, mention
muskets (Brown Bess, etc.) < http://home.att.net/~buck.conner/personal.html
>

I'm sure that others on this list can add to the use on you gun in the fur
trade and who else may have started out with one, this is a very good
information gathering source, so keep notes.

Buck
-----------------------------------
-----Original Message-----
From: Jennifer & Bill Lynch <jlynch@bcm.tmc.edu>
To: hist_text@xmission.com <hist_text@xmission.com>
Date: Thursday, November 26, 1998 1:29 PM
Subject: MtMan-List: howdy


>howdy,
>i came across your tracks on the internet and was hopin' you wouldn't
>mind me askin a question. i try to be as historically accurate as
>possible towards the early "american" fur trade era. outta fort osage
>missouri and all. i was lookin for a gun that would overall flexibilty
>when it came to time periods. i recently acquired a second model brown
>bess, for price and because after my research i felt it was probably the
>most common and practical (cuz i hunt varmints that walk and fly). i
>figured the bess would have been used by trappers during the turn of the
>century and well on into the brief "heyday". the only absolute
>documentation i have is of manuel lisa carryin' one up the missouri. but
>of course the war of 1812 brought alot of these smoothebores into the
>northern rockies too. but ya sure don't hear much about 'em at
>rendezveous. i'm very aware of the popularity of the northwest trade gun
>and heard it may even predate the bess. i guess i'm just wonderin' if i
>might need to trade for one of them. if you have any documentaion or
>advice i would much appreciate it.
>bill lynch
>